School Violence

Educators Must Handle Problems They Don't Create

April 14, 1994

On Tuesday, U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley outlined a new federal plan to control violence in the public schools. Sadly, many of the tools needed to implement the plan are included in the president's crime bill now pending in Congress.

But as Riley said, we have crossed a line that has never been crossed before with the intensity of violence in our schools - the use of guns in schools and the willingness of non-students to invade schools looking for a victim.

Riley is planning a national effort that will require the expenditure of at least $100 million for such safety measures as metal detectors and will involve the federal departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and Health and Human Services. For example, task forces from those departments are considering installing phones with a direct link to 911 emergency services in every classroom and eliminating all lockers in high schools.

Riley may have come closest to putting his finger on the real problem when he said that educators must "look outside the schoolhouse" for solutions. We know that violence doesn't begin in the schools. Students learn violent behavior at home and on the street; they bring it to school with them. And the real solutions must be found where the problem begins.

Government at all levels must deal with the violence being brought from the community into the schools. At the same time, however, Riley can't forget that part of the long-term solution is for schools to capture the imaginations of all students from the first day in kindergarten so they will want to learn.